Faith
by TheLateNightStoryteller
Summary: A short story about faith and love that focuses on a simple but happy moment between Ron and Hermione. Occurs in July after their 6th year at Hogwarts. All characters belong to the one and only J.K. Rowling.


Setting**: **This story takes place at the burrow in the summer after their sixth year about a week before Harry's birthday. I am assuming Hermione, Fleur and Bill were staying with the Weaselys before they went to get Harry.

Ron lay on the green, prickly grass behind his house, squinting at the late morning sun that shone brightly overhead.  
"This is stupid," he said, for the second time, to the bushy brown haired girl who lay beside him.  
"Shhhh," she scolded, "it isn't going to work if you keep talking."  
"It isn't going to work at _all_ Hermione." he told her, turning his head to face her.  
"Yes it will," she argued, "I used to do this with my Mum and Dad all the time. You just need to stay quiet."  
He sighed. "Why did I think this was going to be fun again?"  
Hermione scowled at him, "Well would you would rather go inside and listen to Fleur complain about the chickens making her hair smell?"  
"Yes," Ron told her. "I-" but he stopped at the hurt expression on her face.  
She looked away quickly. "Go if you want to then, this will be much easier without all your talking anyway."  
"I can't leave you all alone out here!" he exclaimed, "Not with You-Know-Who and his death eaters lurking around out there. Besides," he added, "I haven't seen you in almost a month. I missed you."  
The last part came out without him thinking and he froze, watching Hermione out of the corner of his eye.  
She was smiling. "I missed you too," she told him, as if saying this were the most natural thing in the world. "Stay for just a bit longer. You'll like it, I promise."  
He doubted that but he no longer had any desire to go back inside.  
"Alright," he agreed. "But I pick the next thing we do."  
"Mhmmm," she acknowledged and they fell silent.  
It wasn't really that bad out there, Ron thought as they waited. He liked the smell of grass and the warm feel of the sun beaming down on him. It was peaceful, laying there in the yard with Hermione and listening to the chirps of birds overhead and her soft breathing beside him. He felt his worries about death eaters and Voldemort uncoiling a bit. He was beginning to doze off when he felt Hermione nudge him lightly.  
A squirrel had wandered towards them and was standing about three feet away staring at the peanuts they had scattered across their bellies.  
Ron met Hermione's eyes and saw her raise her eyebrows smugly. He couldn't decide if he felt annoyed or amused with her.  
'_Of course she was right.' he thought.  
_The squirrel scurried up to them, clearly wavering between wanting to grab the peanuts and wanting to stay away from the two large, strange looking creatures before it. Ron and Hermione both lay perfectly still while it made up its mind. Finally, it seemed to decide that they weren't going to move and it scuttled up to them and hopped onto Ron's stomach.  
It was lighter than he thought it would be and it tickled as it crawled across him and jammed peanuts into its mouth so that the sides of its face stuck out ridiculously. He wanted to laugh but he bit tongue, afraid he would scare it away. Once it had filled its cheeks with as many peanuts as it could carry (which was six, more than Ron thought would possibly fit in its little mouth) it darted back towards the trees.  
"That was hilarious!" he said, sitting up a bit. "Did you see how big it's cheeks got? Oh, but you didn't get a turn." he added, hoping she wasn't too disappointed.  
"Ron shhhhh!" she laughed, taking his arm and pulling him back down again. "He's coming back."  
"Really?" he whispered, laying his head back on the grass, "Doesn't he have enough already?"  
"He's going to hide them not eat them," she explained grinning at him. He could tell by the way her mouth was twitching she was trying not to laugh. "He needs to store them up so he has food in the winter."  
"Oh," he said surprised, "that's actually pretty smart for a squirrel."  
"They all do it," Hermione chuckled quietly beside him.  
They were still for a few more minutes and the squirrel returned, jumping this time onto Hermione who now had more peanuts than he did resting on top of her.  
He saw her face light up as she watched it stuffing its cheeks again and felt a warm glow of affection.  
They were outside for another ten minutes as the squirrel collected their offerings, carried them off and returned again for more. Ron was sorry they hadn't brought more.  
When all the peanuts were gone they both sat up and watched the squirrel jog out of sight. When he was gone they both broke into laughter.  
"Ok, that _was _pretty fun," Ron admitted through his chortles. "It felt so weird crawling all over me like that! And I had no idea they could fit so much in their mouth."  
"Why do you ever doubt me?" Hermione asked beaming at him.  
"Hey, I stayed didn't I?" he objected "Even if it was partly because you shouldn't be out here alone."  
For a moment he couldn't read her expression. "Yes, you did." she said softly looking at him intently so that he felt himself blush.  
Before he knew what was happening she had kissed him swiftly on the cheek, grabbed his hand and was pulling him back towards the house.  
"We really should get inside," she was saying, "we've been out here for a long time and we didn't put anything on to protect our skin."  
Ron was touching the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him and wasn't really worrying about a sunburn.  
"What was that for?" he asked.  
"Just because I love you," she replied and he saw her turn pink before she added quickly, "you're a good friend."  
Ron felt a wonderful, happy feeling spread through him and was surprised his Patronous didn't burst out of him then and there.  
"I love you too," he told her as they approached the house and he felt her squeeze his hand a little tighter.  
However, despite his joy, he felt tendrils of cold fear running across the warmth that had spread through him. His feelings for Hermione had reminded him what he stood to lose now that his world was at war. What might happen in the coming months, he wondered, to the people he loved? His mother, his father, his brothers (in which he counted Harry), his sister or Hermione could be dead a month from now. In as little as a few weeks this amazing girl holding his hand could be gone forever. He pushed the thought down as swiftly as it came it up because it was far too frightening and painful to think about.  
_'They are all so strong,' he thought, 'and brave and clever.' _ He lied to himself that that would be enough and the tendrils retracted a little.  
Even so he caught himself hastily checking his mother's clock as they entered the house (every hand pointed at mortal peril, but all 9 were still there) and he didn't leave Hermione's side for the rest of the day. It wasn't difficult because the same unnerving thoughts had crossed her mind too and she didn't want to let him out of her sight for too long.

Fun Background: I originally had chipmunks in this story (because when I was a kid me and my family would do this with chipmunks) but I read that they are invasive to Brittan and changed it to squirrels.

This story is called Faith because Hermione wanted Ron to have faith in her that the squirrel would come and also because Ron and Hermione (as well as everyone at the burrow probably) are trying to have faith that everyone will be alright.


End file.
